Kenneth Gray v. Jeff Norman, 739 F.3d 1113

On Oct. 27, 1999, then-16-year-old Kenneth Gray broke into a neighbor’s home, confronted the neighbor with a handgun, and fatally shot him; police later identified and questioned Gray.
Gray was interviewed multiple times over two days, given juvenile-form Miranda warnings, twice waived Miranda, requested his mother during questioning at one point, refused a gunshot-residue test, and ultimately confessed on videotape after signing a waiver.
A juvenile court certified Gray to be tried as an adult; the trial court denied remand to juvenile court, denied Gray’s motion to suppress the confession, and after a stipulated bench trial convicted him of second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and armed criminal action.
The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the confession’s admissibility on direct appeal; a state post-conviction court and then the Missouri Court of Appeals rejected Gray’s ineffective-assistance-of-appellate-counsel claim for failing to raise the remand issue.
Gray petitioned for federal habeas relief raising (1) a due-process challenge to the voluntariness of his confession and (2) ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for not challenging certification; the district court denied relief and this court affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Voluntariness of confession (Due Process)	Gray: his youth, medication, lack of access to mother at times, prolonged questioning, and fear rendered his Miranda waivers and confession involuntary.	State: juvenile Miranda warnings were given; no coercion or improper tactics; totality of circumstances supports voluntary waiver.	Court: Affirmed state court; applying Fare totality test, the state’s finding of voluntariness was reasonable under AEDPA.
Ineffective assistance of appellate counsel (Strickland)	Gray: appellate counsel was deficient for not arguing trial-court error in denying remand to juvenile court.	State: counsel reasonably winnowed issues; the ignored claim was not clearly stronger and Gray cannot show prejudice because juvenile-certification is reviewed for abuse of discretion.	Court: Affirmed state-court rejection; Gray failed both deficient-performance and prejudice prongs under Strickland and AEDPA’s doubly-deferential review.

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (establishes Miranda warnings and waiver framework)
Fare v. Michael C., 442 U.S. 707 (totality-of-circumstances test for juvenile Miranda waivers)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (two-part ineffective-assistance test)
Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170 (doubly deferential review for state-court ineffectiveness findings under AEDPA)
Bell v. Norris, 586 F.3d 624 (application of Fare and waiver analysis in juvenile context)
Link v. Luebbers, 469 F.3d 1197 (appellate counsel’s winnowing of issues and when omitted issues can show ineffective assistance)